State Rep. Al Juhnke, DFL-Willmar, said he is determined to make it legal for Minnesota anglers to use two fishing lines year-round.

“We can fish with two lines in the winter and you can fish with two lines on border waters,” said Juhnke, who has introduced a bill to legalize two lines year-round. “You can fish with multiple lines in Wisconsin. If you travel, you know it’s common to fish with two lines in other states.”

The two-line bill has passed the House twice, Juhnke said, but has failed in the Senate. Last year, the House proposal required anglers to pay an extra $5 to use an extra line.

While the fee hasn’t been proposed this year, Juhnke said it might be a way to raise money for the Department of Natural Resources, which will have its budget cut this year. A $10 fee to use two fishing lines could raise potentially $1 million for the agency’s programs.

“I don’t think anglers are unwilling to pay for that privilege,” Juhnke said.

“It’s not in the spirit of conservation,” Chaudhary said. “I’d be OK with two lines if we had minimum size limits for walleyes and a reduction in our limits.”

The DNR also opposes the two-line proposals over concerns it will lead to increase harvests of fish. Assistant DNR commissioner Bob Meier said anglers using two lines on Lake Mille Lacs, for instance, could mean anglers would more quickly reach the state’s walleye allocation.

He said the agency is looking at data to determine what impacts two lines would have.

Juhnke’s bill, HF 0022, is scheduled for its first hearing Monday in the House Game, Fish and Forest Division. The committee will also discuss Juhnke’s bill, HF 0026, to legalize nonresident licenses for dark-house spearing.

NO BOW AND GUN CASE?

Should hunters have to transport their firearms and bows in a case? Current law requires them to, but that would change under a law introduced by Reps. David Dill, DFL-Orr, and Tony Cornish, R-Good Thunder. The bill, HF 128, makes it legal for anyone who “may legally possess a firearm” to transport it in a motor vehicle without it being encased, unloaded or in the trunk.

Meier said the DNR opposes the bill for safety reasons.

TIGHTENING BAITING RULES

Sen. Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing, has introduced a bill that tweaks the state’s deer-baiting law to close loopholes that conservation officers say allow hunters to bait.

The rule removes language that exempts “bird feeders containing grains or nuts that are at least six feet above the ground” from the baiting law. It also clarifies the exemptions for food resulting from farming, forest management and wildlife food plantings. The bill is SF 105.

The Pioneer Press first reported the loopholes last fall.

LEAD BULLET HEARING

The Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee will hold an informational hearing at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday on the issue of lead bullets and venison. Chaudhary, who chairs the committee, said the group will hear reports on the DNR’s lead bullet study, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention study on lead bullets and venison consumption and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s regulation and research of food-shelf venison.

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